Anne Perkins hits the nail on the head in her article about the near absence of women from the UK political landscape (Let us hear about political women, not politicians' wives, 24 March). The media focus on politicians' wives highlights the degree to which conventional attitudes about gender roles still hamper our perceptions of women in the public sphere.
Sarah Brown's fashion sense or Samantha Cameron's pregnancy should not distract attention from the fact that fewer than 20% of Westminster MPs are female. Such underrepresentation means that the politicians still do not reflect the population as a whole. This gender disparity makes our parliament one of the most unrepresentative in Europe, and puts us below countries such as Afghanistan, Rwanda and Cuba in the percentage of female MPs.
The next government must address why women continue to be underrepresented in the political and business worlds. We need to see positive action measures being brought in to increase the numbers of women in parliament. The Greens also support the introduction of a law to ensure that boards of major companies are at least 40% female, following the successful model in Norway.
In the Brighton Pavilion constituency, where I'm standing, women have really come to the fore – in fact it's an all-female contest. Millicent Fawcett, whose husband Henry represented Brighton in the 1870s, was instrumental in getting women the vote. Let's hope that we can make good on her legacy by a push for equal representation.
Caroline Lucas MEP
Leader, Green party
• Europe 2020 is the EU's new strategy for growth and employment. It is a crucial challenge for the EU, with its ageing population, to get more women into work. The Swedish government has worked hard for the inclusion of a gender equality perspective in the growth strategy. We must start to speak openly about women's employment.
Millions of women in the EU cannot work because they are responsible for their family. From an economic point of view, this does not make sense. More women in work would mean higher GDP and thus higher tax revenue. In the EU, an average of just six in 10 women are in paid employment. Four times as many women as men work part-time. Men earn almost 20% more, which affects women's future pensions and limits their economic freedom.
We want Europe 2020 to include a specific target on more women in paid employment. The EU has a clear vision of women and men having the same opportunities to combine working life, private life and family life. Efforts to move out of the economic crisis must go hand in hand with efforts to create a gender-equal Europe. The EU cannot afford to have the world's best-educated housewives.
Birgitta Ohlsson, Sweden's minister for EU affairs
Anders Borg, Sweden's minister for finance
• Nils Pratley points out that David Cameron's unilateral policy on a banking levy won't help UK taxpayers – but maybe it's the only option he has (Viewpoint, 23 March). The Conservative party used to be proud of its internationalist outlook, but the party has become ever more insular – resulting last year in Cameron's decision to cut himself off from Europe's mainstream centre-right. Instead of working with Merkel and Sarkozy, Conservatives in the European parliament have been forced into an alliance with fringe parties who carry little weight. At a time when international co-operation matters most, the Conservative leader has little to offer but to go it alone.
Glenis Willmott MEP
Labour group leader, European parliament
• Every citizen has a stake in the future of this country, so campaigns like Operation Black Vote are to be applauded (Report, 24 March). Another group who also deserve their say are the half a million people with learning disabilities who are eligible to vote, but find politics complex and alienating. Less jargon, simpler language and better use of visual aids would not only help people with learning disabilities to understand politics better, but also people with low literacy, visual impairments and, indeed, all of us.
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